The former deputies Juan Bernardo Fuentes Curbelo, nicknamed 'Tito Berni', of the PSOE, and Alberto Casero, of the PP, both investigated by the Justice, have already begun to collect from Congress the compensation to which they are entitled for having left their seats. Both will receive a total of 12,507.56 euros in concept of a figure similar to unemployment benefit.

The socialist Fuentes Cuberlo was forced to resign on February 14 after learning that he was being investigated for the corruption plot of the 'Mediator case'. On March 6, it was Casero who decided to deliver his minutes after an investigating judge of the Supreme Court recommended prosecuting him for prevarication and embezzlement during his time as mayor of Trujillo (Cáceres).

The two asked the Bureau of the Congress to pay them the compensation that corresponded to them, since any deputy who leaves the seat and has been at least two years in the Chamber, is entitled to receive compensation for cessation, incompatible with other public or private income. It is a kind of unemployment benefit, since you do not have access to unemployment because it is not part of the Social Security system.

The governing body of the Chamber authorized them to collect this kind of unemployment, whose amount is the equivalent of one monthly payment of the constitutional allowance (3,126.89 euros) for each year of parliamentary mandate.

Alberto Casero, former deputy of the PP, last June after giving a voluntary statement before the Supreme.

Month by month

In both cases, the Bureau of Congress has authorized them to receive four monthly payments. According to Europa Press parliamentary sources, Fuentes Curbelo has charged the monthly payment corresponding to March and April, since he had acquired the right since mid-February. The former Canarian deputy, who kept his minutes for three years, would therefore have two outstanding payments.

For his part, Casero – who was a deputy for six months in the previous legislature and more than three years in the current one – has received this April the first of the four incomes that he will receive if his circumstances do not change.

And it is that severance pay is not paid at once, but is divided and Congress is paying it monthly. This is because this benefit is "incompatible with the perception of any remuneration, salary, salary, pension, diet, compensation or perception of any nature, whether public or private", so at any time the Chamber can stop the payment if it detects that the former deputy has other income.

  • Social security
  • Cáceres
  • PP
  • PSOE
  • Congress of Deputies

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Learn more